Faith & Water

Monthly Archives: September 2014

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God of Moses and Miriam,
You led people by fire and by stars,
You who guided our ancestors across wilderness and sea:

Help.

We are overwhelmed by the journey
and weary of living in uncertainty.

Our lives are thirsty.
We turn to you for something to drink:
for hope to soothe our cynical souls,
for grace to mend our relationships,
for love to save us from our arrogance,
for peace to quell our longing for more.

Our lives are changing.
We turn to you for something to steady us:
for vision to fill us with childlike joy,
for wisdom to know our next steps,
for community to share the journey,
for patience through each struggle.

You are our rock and our water.
Though we feel unsteady, help us stand.
Though we fear drowning, call us to wade deeply.

You are our history and our future.
Comfort our spirits with familiar stories of your goodness.
Unsettle our lives toward the foreign terrain of your Kindom.

The LORD said to Moses, “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that people may drink.” Moses did so, and he called the place Massah and Meribah, because the people tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” (Exodus 17:6-7)

The ancient Israelites’ questions might ring familiar to those of us in the church:

What’s our plan for programming?

Where’s our income? Where’s our growth?

Why doesn’t God bless us like the church down the street?

What’s up with this wilderness season, God?!

I have a special fondness for Numbers 20’s version of the water-from-a-rock story that includes Moses’ angry outburst, but here in the Exodus 17 version, Moses provides more thoughtful leadership in response to the people’s worries: following God’s direction, he and a few leaders step away from the people in order to listen to God for what’s next, in order to see a picture that isn’t clouded by anxiety. The people are concerned with the details of survival. Moses pauses to focus on the details of God’s work.

The modern American church is anxious, too, about its survival, and while our anxiety is understandable, it doesn’t draw us any closer to God or to God’s purpose for the church today. The challenge of living in this unfamiliar wilderness season of the church is we must occasionally step away from the details of survival in order to seek God’s perspective on the big picture and to discern next steps.

While we all individually need to mind this balance between anxiety and perspective, daily living and discernment, I believe that the church bears a particular responsibility to shed its anxious fretting and step back from its panicked ‘survival mode’ in order to catch a vision of God’s ability to produce a wellspring from a dry desert rock. The church bears a holy obligation to recognize and reconsider its participation in antics of moaning & whining & drama & financial anxiety & political tension, in order to celebrate God’s living water and then splash that living water out onto the world, showering it abundantly on all who are thirsty.

Because the sun comes up in the morning,just as it always doesfaithfullyday in and day out,but GOD I want to sleep.

I’m grumpy because the sun sets at night,just as it always doesfaithfullyday in and day out,but GOD I still have work to do.

And I’m mad because I don’t like to cookbut there’s an abundance of foodin the pantryso I don’t have an excuseto go out to eat.

Plus I’m out of sorts and irritatedbecause the bush that protects me from the sun— the work that protects my daily living —withered and refused to thrivefor my sake alone,and I should be enough reasonfor that friggin bush to keep living, GOD!

And darn it, you’re alwaysoverflowing with love, GOD,
just like you always do
faithfully
day in and day out.Stop trying to make me smile
or enjoy this beautiful day!I am justtryingto begrumpyso leave me alone already, GOD.

P.S. Jonah, you rock. Keep sittin’ on that hill and waitin’ for Ninevah to spontaneously combust. I’m with you in spirit, dude.

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